The tinker's wedding

de J. M. Synge

Sarah Casey, an Irish traveller woman, has for years been going the roads with Michael Byrne, a casual tinsmith; now she would like to get married. She has saved up just enough money to pay the priest to marry them; half a sovereign plus the tin can Michael has made is to be the fee for the ceremony. But the tin can is too much of a temptation for Michael's mother Mary, who sees in it a quick sale that would give her ample money for alcohol, leaving Sarah unable to pay the unsympathetic pastor for the wedding, and the respectability, she so craves.